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Meditations

Review: Luchador Shiraz 2006

My sister & I had bought this bottle in the first week on the evening of a balmy July, at the Kitsilano Wine Cellar near my apartment.

The intent of whatever wine we had chosen was to serve not only for taste, but as a dose of mind medicine, while we sat on a desolate side of the beach & dissected our distress. It was one of those nights: two synchronic slits to the heart & the natural feminine need to analyze the logic of act so to simplify its abiding emotions. It never works, but the drinking of the wine certainly plays a fine role of distraction while time lingers a long, promising a result of rejuvination..

So, the wine. It’s 5% Cabarnet Sauvignon, 60% fruit sourced from Barossa Valley & 40% from McLaren Vale. It was made by the R Winery in South Australia & imported here by Grateful Palate Imports. It was also aged for 12 months in seasoned French & American oak. At 15.5% & full-bodied, this wine was set ablaze with taste. The issue with its beefiness was that it was stylized, as if on steroids, & thus throwing it out of sorts.

The color was a heavy & dark blue-violet with a velveteen texture. Although I thought this wine had more brawn than brains, I loved its core of cedar, mocha, lavender & cassis. Its fatness also carried out a bit of black licorice & tar.

if you’re looking to get kicked in the stomach by a kangaroo carrying a pouch full of fruit, then this is most certainly the wine for you. I hold no regrets in purchasing this Shiraz, but don’t necessarily foresee it landing on my list of personal classics.

However, had I given it the chance to decant properly or cool down a slight degree, I may have had a contrastive opinion. Then again, what else should I have expected with the design of its label? Go big, or go home.